We half ran through the crowd. We caught the fellow as he was diagonally crossing the street. We rushed up, one on each side of him, and seized him by the arms.
CHAPTER III
Tako, the Mysterious
THE fellow towered head and shoulders over Don, and almost that over me. He stared down at us, his jaw dropping with surprise. My heart was pounding; to me there was no doubt about it now; this heavy-featured handsome, but evil face was the face of the apparition at whom Don had fired as it hung in the air over the Fort Beach path. But this was a man. His arm, as I clutched it, was muscularly solid beneath the sleeve of his flannel jacket.
“I say,” Don panted. “Just a minute.”
With a sweep of his arms the stranger angrily flung off our hold.
“What do you want?”
I saw, within twenty feet of us, a policeman standing in the street intersection.
“I beg your pardon,” Don stammered. We had had no time to plan anything. I put in:
“We thought you were a friend of ours. This night—so much excitement—let’s get back to the curb.”